Awami National Party

The Awami National Party (ANP) is a democratic socialist (formerly Marxist) Pashtun political party in Pakistan which was founded in 1986 by Abdul Wali Khan. The party depended on the Pashtuns of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern Balochistan as its voter base, and, since its inception, it was an important ally of the Pakistan Peoples Party. Since the 2000s, hundreds of ANP members were assassinated or murdered in targeted killings, with most attacks occurring in the Karachi or Peshawar areas. The party espoused a nonviolent approach to tackling extremism, and it supports democratic socialism, secularism, economic egalitarianism, Pashtun nationalism, regional autonomy, increased Pashtun cultural expression, and opposed the Taliban (it claimed that PTI chairman Imran Khan was complicit in Taliban attacks).